Aid, Ownership and Development: The Inverse Sovereignty Effect in the Pacific Islands

Description

One of the key principles for effective aid programmes is that recipient agencies exert high degrees of ownership over the agendas, resources, systems and outcomes of aid activities. Sovereign recipient states should lead the process of development. Yet despite this well-recognised principle, the realities of aid delivery mean that ownership is often compromised in practice. Aid, Ownership and Development examines this ‘inverse sovereignty’ hypothesis with regard to the states and territories of the Pacific Island region. It provides an initial overview of different aid ‘regimes’ over time, maps aid flows in the region, and analyses the concept of sovereignty. Drawing on a rich range of primary research by the authors and contributors, it focuses on the agencies and individuals within the Pacific Islands who administer and apply aid projects and programmes. There is indeed evidence for the inverse sovereignty effect; particularly when island states and their small and stretched bureaucracies have to deal with complex and burdensome donor reporting requirements, management systems, consultative meetings and differing strategic priorities. This book outlines important ways in which Pacific agencies have proved adept not only at meeting these requirements, but also asserting their own priorities and ways of operating. It concludes that global agreements, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, can be effective means for Pacific agencies to both hold donors to account and also to recognise and exercise their own sovereignty. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of figures List of tables List of research insight boxes List of authors and contributors List of abbreviations Acknowledgements 1 Aid in the Pacific in historic and geographic context Aid in the Pacific Islands Aid, ownership and sovereignty The inverse sovereignty hypothesis A brief history of colonisation and sovereignty in the Pacific Researching aid in the Pacific 2 Global aid regimes and the Pacific Introduction Aid regimes: Pacific currents, global tides Colonial transfers and the foundations of ‘aid’ in the Pacific Modernisation and the development project Neoliberalism Neostructuralism Retroliberalism Summary and perspective 3 Aid in the Pacific Islands: an overview Introduction: what is aid? Mapping aid flows in the Pacific Estimating non-DAC aid flows Other forms of ‘aid’s Conclusions: aid and the framing of the Pacific Islands 4 Sovereignty Introduction The contemporary concept of sovereignty Questioning Westphalian sovereignty Oceanic sovereignty An emerging ‘Islandian’ sovereignty? Conclusions 5 The inverse sovereignty effect Introduction Compliance: the new conditionalities The burden of consultation The proliferation and complexity of aid institutions The issue of capacity Looking forward: inverse sovereignty and retroliberalism Conclusion 6 Asserting Pacific sovereignty Introduction National sovereignty: engaging with the global aid environment Paris in practice: recipient and donor relationships Institutional sovereignty: developing national structures, policies and capabilities State sovereignty and civil society The everyday exercise of sovereignty: cafés and kava Conclusions 7 Conclusions – aid and Oceanic sovereignty Introduction Pacific currents, global tides – new aid regimes Oceanic sovereignty References Index